Bangladesh police fire tear gas at election protest

Source :

Last Updated: Sun, Dec 09, 2012 08:30 hrs

DHAKA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Police fired rubber bullets and
tear gas to disperse protesters staging blockades across
Bangladesh on Sunday as part of an opposition campaign for an
independent caretaker administration to oversee next year's
national election.

Police and witnesses said supporters of the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former prime minister Begum
Khaleda Zia, and its allies set ablaze about 30 buses, trucks
and cars in the capital Dhaka and other parts of the country.

"We are trying to contain the battles between activists and
police, which has prevented movement of vehicles and forced
residents from the streets," a police officer said.

Witnesses said the highway from Dhaka to the main port of
Chittagong was deserted after the road had been barricaded.

At least 100 people were injured and a similar number had
been detained by police across the country, they said.

The political scene in Bangladesh has been dominated for
decades by bitter rivals Khaleda Zia and current Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina, whose electoral campaigns have sparked violent
clashes and on occasions prompted military intervention.

The two women, both in their mid 60s and who have served two
terms each as the country's leader, are likely to face each
other again in the next election due by end of 2013.

The BNP called for Sunday's blockade to force Sheikh Hasina
to restore a system of holding parliamentary elections under a
non-party caretaker administration, instead of it being
supervised by the party in power.

Hasina's government over-ruled the caretaker provision in a
constitutional amendment last year.

The BNP and allies including Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's
largest Islamic party, want the caretaker system to be
re-instated to guard against what they say would be an attempt
by Hasina's Awami League party to steal the election results.

In 2007, the army was forced to intervene amid an election
standoff between the two main parties.

It formed a caretaker administration after the then BNP-led
government failed to hold fresh elections by the end of its
parliamentary mandate. A military-led interim government
organised fresh elections in 2008.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul and Anis Ahmed; Editing by Jeremy
Laurence)